Left behind in Memphis
 

I just wanted to share my first experience of trying to jumpseat on Fedex. I called the the jumpseat number a day prior and provided all my information . I was informed to show up at 0154 for my flight . I arrived into Memphis at 2300 and took the shuttle to AOC where I arrived before 2330. I checked in with the desk and they told me to standby and they will call me as soon as they got CA approval . After 1 hr 30 min flight to Memphis and waiting for 5 hours at AOC it was getting close to departure time . As the departure time got closer I was starting to get nervous as my name was never called as I sat 20 feet from the desk. I finally decided to follow up and see what the status was . The jumpseat coordinator couldn’t get a hold of anyone on the phone to confirm my seat . By the time it was all said and done, the departure time had arrived and no confirmation and flight had already left . I am now back at the passenger terminal waiting for a 0730 2 leg commute home . In the end , I can say my first experience was not a good one .


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Which flight were you trying to jumpseat on?

1415 to PDX


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Captains permission is one area of our jumpseat policy that needs some tweaking...a lot of Captains don't pay close enough attention to those requests, myself included...I almost think it might be better to let the jumpseater book it, with the Captains ability to decline it, if there is an issue...

I have my profile set up to automatically approve Captain’s Permission jumpseats. One nice thing of the new program but not everyone knows it is there or uses it. I do not think the Captain would ever know there is a request pending unlesss the crew member emails the Captain directly. I always emailed with the request to ride. Not sure how an off line crew member would go about getting Captain’s permission.

Sorry about the missed ride.

It’s possible the crew forgot to call Jumpseat and let you know the bus was leaving, and then got sidetracked.

Where is this automatic approval setting you speak of? I thought the jumpseaters just showed up on the release.

whaaaaa! how many times has the J/S not worked out for me and other fedex pilots on passenger carriers and yet we’re not on their web pages crying a river. Add this to the millennial oddities list. #getoverit. #boohoo #itsnotusitsyou

It’s in your profile in the new jumpseat interface. Click on the group of squares next to your name to select User Preferences. You can select to have Captain’s Permission Required seats to be automatically approved.

I’m pretty sure a crew member awaiting Captain’s Permission will not show up on the release.

There should have been other jumpseaters on the flight if a pilot was awaiting permission. When the fligt was called that would have been the opportunity to go talk to the Captain. However, if the other jumpseates were FedEx pilots and met the crew at the desk no announcements may have been made.

determined2fly,

I'm very sorry about your unfortunate experience with our jumpseats. It's one of the few good deals we have to offer other carriers' pilots in exchange for the hospitality we are shown day in and day out by them. It's especially painful when things go south since you can't exactly walk down the concourse to the next available flight.

The real problem is our e-mail system. Until recently, we were alerted on our sign-in homepage to the fact we have new or unread e-mail. Then, with a single click, we could be reading it. So, when a pilot signed in to look at the Flight Plan, he could see there's an e-mail, click, see it's a Jumpseat request, click, approved, done.

In a move to "improve security", we no longer receive any notification, and the e-mail is several clicks and a multi-step verification process away. Consequently, many people won't check e-mail when they're getting ready to fly, and the Captain's permission request e-mail will go unread.

[FedEx pilots: Freebird (the jumpseat system) will send you an e-mail when there is a Captain's Permission Request, and you can go to Freebird to approve it. (As mentioned above, you can also set it up to approve all requests automatically. Just be aware that will place the onus on you to screen everyone at boarding time.) You can use Outlook to send yourself a TEXT message when you receive an e-mail alert. Hopefully you can avoid missing something important like this.]


Again, please accept our sincere apology for our failure. I hope you'll give us another chance and your next experience will be a good one.






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